Flying Kisses

A conversation between Nanma and me yesterday.

"Amma, yesterday when you were at school did you feel a LOT of kisses coming at you?" 

     "Huh? No! " 

"Today at school, after snack, I thought about you and I sent many, many, many, many kisses to you" She shows how she kissed her hand and blew the kisses into the air.  Then squeezing and twisting her lips with her hands, she says " And then I squeezed all the kisses from my lips, rolled them into a ball and threw them in the air" 

    "Aww! Thank you baby!" 

"My kisses can fly. They have wings.  I don't have to tell them where to go. They know! They don't have eyes so they cant see, but they go straight to you! " She closes her eyes, purses her lips and flaps her arms around pretending to be a flying kiss! 

Sigh! I love her imagination. That is one thing I prayed for before she was born!! Thank you Lord for answering my prayer! Life is so much more interesting when your child has a wild imagination.

My Family

I love them!

I don't have a day when I have not been grateful for the joy these two darlings bring me.

My husband = my rock, my main man, honest opinion giver, my best friend , my one true love , know-er of my inside outs.

My daughter = my dream come true, bringer of laughter,  intense feeling stirrer , my catalyst in making me want to be a better person, the best present from God.

I am blessed and I am glad I know it!

Headless in Heaven

Last week, we attended the wake and funeral of Ashwin's beloved grand uncle. We wanted Nanma to witness this.  Naturally, we knew there'd be many questions and Ashwin and I had discussed what we would tell her and how. We are particular that she knows the truth about life and death and we want her to grow up knowing that death isn't the end and of life everlasting to those who believe.

So... we got past all the "Why did he die?" "How did he die?" and the "I won't die". Nanma was fine at the home of the deseased. She played with her cousins there and everything was fine. Then came the time at the cemetery. We reached early because parking would be a problem.  Ashwin showed her the pit they had dug (funerals in India are very different from those in the west. The congregation is present for the actual burial) and explained

Ashwin: "Nanma, that's the pit where they are going to put the Appacha's body."
Nanma: "Why?"
Ashwin: "Because he died. When someone dies, their body cannot walk or talk or do anything we can do. It will soon get spoiled so we bury it"
Nanma: "Why?"
Me: "But then, remember your memory verse? "
Nanma : " for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. Whoever believes in him will not die but have "returnal" life" (she can never say eternal)
Ashwin: Yes. So Appacha is in heaven with Jesus.
Nanma : huh?
Me: "Nanma, his body will be buried. But because he believed in Jesus, his life will be with Jesus in that awesome, super place called heaven"
Nanma: ..... (long pause) ...  but his head will still be here, no? 

She understood "body" to mean everything neck down. ha ha! We laughed, got a few glares from people around, and then set her right.

She still doesn't understand the concept. But we aren't going to dilute what we believe in with watered down lies.

I said that??

"Nanma! You can't fly!" I screamed,

I did?

I did.

Every now and then I catch myself saying the absurdest things and chuckle to myself. This happened last night. I was ironing clothes and Ashwin was busy so I had to keep Nanma occupied. I brought out the 'fairy dress up kit' she had got as a birthday present. Nanma got into character immediately! She was on our bed, twirling around in her tutu & tiara, waving her magic wand, showing off her sparkly wings . . . All was well until lost in her imagination, she decided to fly off the bed.

YIKES!!!

Thank goodness she landed on her feet!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Party

Presenting you , Nanma's 3rd birthday party. The theme was her current favorite book - "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. Our little flat was decorated with colours and pictures from the book and the cake was the caterpillar of course! I baked vanilla cupcakes with green butter cream frosting for the caterpillar's body and a small round vanilla cake with red buttercream frosting for the head. On the menu, we tried to have food from the book and got as close as we could with our small budget and locally available resources.

I went out looking for party hats. They cost between Rs.4-8 per hat and I thought that was a waste considering they're never used after the party and invariably are too flimsy and break within the first few minutes of wearing. Instead I bought thin, metal hairbands and used sparkly pipe cleaners and twisted them around it to make antennae!

My darling father-in-law and cousin Soumya helped make the butterfly for the wall.

I used tissue paper to make colourful pomanders that were strung across our teensy weensy living cum dining room. I learned how to make them here. Of course, I cheated and used less paper.

Our little home had more people that we've ever had before, but I think we managed quite alright for that! Here's nanma blowing the candles off. Look at the faces of the kids around her...so cute!

You should have seen her go at the cake with the knife... such a pro at cake cutting!

And then it was time to bond with her friends and cousins over food! Notice the mat they're sitting on? It was a gift when Nanma was a newborn by our beloved Moses Thatha.

She managed to sneak in some cuddle time with her Chennai Ammachy. Nanma is wearing a dress handmade by her ODC Ammachy aka my mom!

After food, the kids moved on outside for some craft fun. I had saved cardboard egg cartons for a couple of weeks to make caterpillars.
Of course it was MESSY !!! But we managed to clean up afterward. Thank you SO much Soumya for helping me clean up!

After our guests had left, the closest family stayed on. Here are Nanma and her cousin Ahana showing off their dance moves!

Waka Waka!

Over all it was a lovely evening. Planning the party was stressful but it was "Happy Stress" as I call it!

3

Terrible Twos almost over . Phew! . . . .Wait! Not so soon!

You know how I always felt that with Nanma her "terrible twos" began at one and a half years of age, and then when she turned two I realised what the term "terrible twos" actually meant?

well. . .

Nanma is almost 3 now and Ashwin and I have been hoping for some magic to take away the 'terribleness' on her 3rd birthday. We've sort of been living in this bubble thinking that after the 'terrible twos', the next big trouble will only begin at teenage.

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Silly us.

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I learned something new today.

I read on a mommy blog today that there is something called the "thrashing threes" and then something else called the "fearsome fours" ! ! !

Good Lord!! Could you please send us a triple load of grace each morning??

Recipe for Heartmelts

First you take a little bitty bit of cuteness.

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.Then you twirl it around.

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.And around. . . .

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And then you add another bitty bit of cuteness to it.

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And then you watch them hug.
One heartmelt ready to go!!

That's Nanma and her "cousind" Ahana! ** love**

They are not really cousins, but when you have 3 generations of family friends that even share your same surname, you are practically cousins!

P.S Leena, Nanma and I loved the dress! Thanks so much!

If you were a fly on my wall

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post titled "If you were a fly on my classroom wall". Now its time to do the home version of it.

Things have been very interesting recently. I think its all the time she has spent indoors thanks to her family members falling sick one by one that lent flight to this splendid imagination of hers.

So. . . if you were a fly on our wall you'd hear things like . . .

" Amma, Appa talk softly! The balloons are sleeping"

"Nanma! You can't mop the floor with grape juice!"

"Penguin is sleeping in the washing machine"

"I don't want medicine! If I go to Samaya's house my cough will all go away!"

"Amma, I want semenlation!"

WHAAAAAAT???

Semenlation! .....(turns out she wanted steam inhalation! phew!)

"Nanma reading time is over. Now its sleeping time"

Amma, dont disburt . I'm bissi"

"Tomorrow is my kalyanam*" (*wedding)

What is kalyanam?

"kalyanam is wearing sari and eating biriyani"

You want curd in your noodles?? REALLY?? NO!! (I don't know where she got that Ra-One trait from!!)

"My crocs also want a bubble bath"

"Amma, is this my poopoo? " (taking some random piece of dried brown stuff off the ground and shoving it under my nose to smell!)

O.K I'll stop there.... it could get worse you know!

My little composer

Nanma recently composed her first song. The first half of the tune sounds like "I'm a little teapot" and the second half is like the last two lines of "twinkle twinkle". Here are the lyrics.

I going to the jungle

And what I see?

Brother John** and Lion and me

Brother John and lion and me

And it repeats over and over again till you get fed up and ask her to stop.

** brother john - from the rhyme "Are you sleeping"

Ashwin and I are so proud of her. She is just learning to speak English but what amazes me is the song rhymes! Looking forward to more such conpositions.

Looks like there might be hope for Nanma in the singing Department after all!

Freeze Frame

Sometimes photographs capture special moments

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Like this one below.

A special moment frozen in time.

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A memory. recorded

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I am a fan of my husband's photographic skills.

3John 1:4

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. - 3John 1:4 (The Bible)

These were words my Ammachy wrote in a little journal or sorts. We found this after she had gone to heaven after 3 years of cancer.

Nanma has been making me think of this verse a lot these days. I have been talking to her about Jesus since she was 1 or so and we've been praying together for some time now. I didn't really know what her understanding of God was and whether prayer was just a routine for her. She would say things like "Jesus is inside my tummy" that would make us laugh! She is so precious!

The other day, I saw her struggle to open an umbrella. I did nothing to help her and I watched from the other room to see what she would do. After a little bit she managed to get it open. Immediately she looked up at the roof, smiled and said "Thank you Jesus!" My heart just welled up with happiness and I remembered the verse Ammachy wrote down in her journal all those years ago.

Truly, I have no greater joy than knowing that my child is walking in the truth.

A New Reality !

How do you fit an ATM machine into a fairy-tale? Even into one that doesn't actually feature fairies??

Last night as I was putting Nanma to bed, she asked me to tell her a story. Only recently did I start telling her classic children's stories. Until then it was more like "realistic fiction" because that is what she knows. I had told her the story of Johnny Appleseed - one of my childhood favorites and she loved it. So I thought I could move on to fantasy.

So I begin*..." Long, long ago, there was a boy named Jack"

Nanma: Jack and Jill went up the hill

ME: Not that Jack, another boy. His Mother didn't have any money at home.

Nanma: No money to buy ice-cream. (this is something she hears from me when we walk down to the beach. I can't be buying her ice-cream everyday, can I?)

ME: NO money for icecream, or nice toys or even food. So his mother said.....

Nanma: What's the mother's name?

ME: um..... ah.....Mary. So his mother said "Take our cow to the market and bring back some money"

Nanma: Why?

ME: Because they didn't have money.

Nanma: He should have gone to the ATM!

ME: (Laughing).... Why?

Nanma: Moo Moo doesn't give money. You go with Amma to the ATM, put something in and money comes out. Amma shall we go to the beach and eat ice-cream?

I was stumped. How could I take that story further from there? ATMs are her reality.

My creative brains were fried from thinking of a way to weave an automated teller machine into a story that featured magic beanstalks and giants!

*The exchange above was entirely in Malayalam. It was funnier in that language!

Hard to believe

Sometimes I look at my little girl as she plays mother to her dolls......

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And I can't remember a time when she was once held just like this......

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...... So tiny....

I knew she'd bring me joy.

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I just had no idea how much.

I still don't!

Play School

One of the highlights of my Summerbreak has been putting Nanma in Playschool. After a LOT
of searching, praying, debating and whatever else, we finally settled on a playschool for Nanma. When I am at work, she is taken care of by our nanny/maid who is a wonderful grandmotherly person. But Nanma was bored. On June 27th we took Nanma to her playschool - Kinderstand. Ashwin and I were nervous but Nanma was excited. After the initial excitement of playing with the tricycles and the ball pit, she spotted the trampoline.

"Aaah! Jumping jumping!!!" She screamed as she ran to it, clambered up and began bouncing away." She seemed so happy, I didn't feel like telling her we were going to leave her there for an hour.

Just that morning, Ashwin had prayed with her telling her Jesus would be with her at school. He was standing at a distance, being a man and not showing how bad he felt. I of course, could do no such thing. I bent down to tell her "Nanma, Appa and Amma are going now. You will play by yourself at school. After you eat your snack, I will come to pick you up. Don't cry, we WILL come to take you home"

She looked at me, waved to her Appa and said " Appa Amma po. Jesus Nanmade koode ondu" (Appa, Amma go. Jesus is with Nanma)

I had to furiously gulp those tears down, waved goodbye and waited till I was safely inside the car and under my dark glasses before I let my inner crybaby come out!

I am so proud of my little baby girl who is growing up way too fast these days!

Here she is again, all set for school. I don't know what exactly her understanding of Jesus is. But my greatest desire for her is that she grows to realise e of Jesus with all her heart.

My daughter, she is.....

She is adventurous

She can be a crybaby

She's a helper

She's a friend

She is brave

She is gleeful

She's a learner

She trusts

She is stubborn

She's friendly..(did I say that before? But that's one of her best traits!)

She is cheeky

She can get angry

And get lost in dreamland

She questions

She leads

She loves

When life gives her lemons (actually this lil lemon is a cutie. But you get the picture,right?)

She makes some very yummy lemonade!

And that's my girl!